MADNESS PHOTOGRAPHY

Madness Photography started as an official, serious company in 1998.
But the history of Madness Photography started long before. Onno “Berserk” Wieringa, founder and owner of Madness Photography, has been a self-taught photographer since he was a little kid and started to take pictures of something he loved since the day he was born: motorcycles!

His motorcycles
After he finished high school, he started working for various Harley-Davidson shops, where he learned to work on bikes. At the age of 17, he already owned two Triumph’s and when he was eighteen he had four Triumphs and a Suzuki GT 750. After getting his drivers license, when he was eighteen, the Triumphs all had to go and were replaced by a bike that he had wanted since the day he was born; a Harley-Davidson. This bike is still in his life; it’s an FXE-F 1200 Super Glide Fat Bob, which has been rebuild and modified endlessly and ridden for many miles. Going everywhere on the bike, there was one thing he always had in his pocket; his camera!
At the age of 23 he started drag racing, and he and his team named “Midnight Madness”, raced the bike on all the major races and drag strips all over Europe. He has competed in many classes; starting with the Street bikes, than Ultimate Street Bike, Super Stock, Pro-Stock, and then finally in the fastest gas burning class; Top Gas! Also again taking thousands of photo’s of everything interesting, at every racetrack! Being a racer for more than 18 years gave him insight in the world of fast bikes, and he’s still involved in the world of drag racing as a helper/mechanic and of course photographer / reporter.

This week we want to share with you a very important happening at the National Motorcycle Museum

Museums thrive on having great things to present to their visitors.

Here's the story on a recent donation to the Museum's permanent collection:

SIGNIFICANT CUSTOM MOTORCYCLES DONATED

TO NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM, ANAMOSA, IOWA

Saving and presenting the history of American motorcycling is what the National Motorcycle Museum is all about. Through the thoughtfulness and generosity of Jaey and Brenda Sedlacek the Museum just acquired some fantastic motorcycles, strong documents of motorcycle customizing and building trends in America.

Sometimes it comes to you naturally. You see something and get a flash that says, "This Is Important." And you do what you can to grab that bit of artistry or innovation, capture it, save it for the future. Motorcycle customizing began to hit its stride in the 1950's with Bobbers, then the chopper craze hit in the 60's. "Builder bikes" came on strong in the late 90's followed by a sit-com or two that drove the them into our living rooms, helped launch a boom period. So where are all those custom bikes now, and what do we know about their creators?

Jaey Sedlacek offers, "I suppose going to bike shows and reading magazines built my passion for custom bike building. While I watched what was going on in the world, I also built a couple of bikes myself. Then I began to acquire some machines I felt were important. I was driven to see these bikes understood and appreciated!"

In the end, Jaey Sedlacek collected five bikes by world class builders Don Hotop, Jesse James, Pat Kennedy and Randy Claude. "Thinking it was better to let people see the bikes, I loaned a couple of my custom bikes to the National Motorcycle Museum here in Iowa. One day I said to myself, 'this is working,' having them at a museum. I called the director there and started the process of outright donation of all five bikes and their two haulers. Better they are before tens of thousands of Museum visitors each year than in my house and garage!"

Museum President John Parham offers, "Each of these bikes is unique, and tells a story about a point in time in American motorcycle customizing. Jaey was very smart to grab them, hang onto these period documents of a sort. We were totally amazed when Jaey began discussing donating such important and highly valuable machines to the Museum's permanent collection. Jaey and his wife Brenda even gifted two fine trailers which will be a great asset to the Museum."

"We were impressed with John's story of success, survival and commitment," mentioned Sedlacek. "We were impressed with how my two motorcycles were received and displayed. We were impressed with the growth and refinement of the museum. We wanted to make a significant contribution to help continue that growth and make NMCM a major destination stop in the Midwest and Iowa for motorcycle history."